WASHINGTON -- The approval rating of the U.S. Congress dropped to near-record levels and is lower than U.S. President George Bush's mark, a Gallup poll indicates.The telephone survey of 1,017 U.S. adults indicates 18 percent of those interviewed May 8-11 approve of the current Congress. The score matches record lows from similar Gallup polls in August 2007 and March 1992.Gallup said Wednesday the reason for the low approval rating is because "rank-and-file Democrats are providing ... [full story]

CHICAGO -- A Chicago police officer has been fired for writing up hundreds of parking tickets that he never gave to offending motorists.Officer Sal Mungia, 35, told a Police Board hearing that he kept the parking tickets after motorists drove away or were verbally abusive to him, The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.By keeping and possibly destroying tickets, Mungia may have left hundreds of people unaware that they were issued citations, said Anna D'Ascenzo, assistant corporation ... [full story]

OTTAWA -- A $550 billion lawsuit claiming mineral and land rights was filed against two Canadian governments in Ottawa by an Indian band in Ontario.The Whitefish Lake First Nation claims the federal and Ontario provincial governments are using flawed data from an 1885 survey that set out boundaries for their reservations that cut them out of the mineral-rich area around Sudbury, the Globe and Mail reported Wednesday.Aaron Detlor, the lawyer representing the group, said it ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- The bounty on al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri is down from $5 million to $100,000 because he is no longer an effective leader, U.S. officials said."The current assessment, based on a number of factors, shows that he is not as an effective leader of al Qaida in Iraq as he was last year," Central Command spokesman U.S. Nacy Capt. Jamie Graybeal told CNNMasri ascended to the al-Qaida in Iraq leadership following ... [full story]

LAPORTE, Ind. -- Forensic anthropologists and a team of graduate students are trying to determine whether a wealthy Indiana woman who lived 100 years ago was a serial killer.Belle Gunness, dubbed "Lady Bluebeard," is suspected of killing as many as 30 people at her hilltop farm in LaPorte, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday. Authorities discovered at least 11 dismembered bodies buried on the farm after a fire destroyed the farmhouse in April 1908.Investigators now say ... [full story]

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Sudanese officials said Wednesday they want to see the Darfur rebel group that attacked last weekend near Khartoum listed as a terrorist group.Fighters from the Justice and Equality Movement raided Khartoum's twin city, Omdurman, Saturday coming as close to the Sudanese capital than it has in five years of conflict.Sudanese officials blamed neighboring Chad for backing the group and severed formal diplomatic ties with the country. Mutrif Siddiq, a Sudanese Foreign Ministry ... [full story]

TORONTO -- High speed and alcohol were factors in a spectacular car crash in Toronto that killed two people and injured eight others, police said.Police said a Honda Accord with at least four people inside was traveling at more than 65 mph on a street where the speed limit is 40 mph when it jumped a concrete median around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Toronto Star reported.As it flew through the air, four people were ejected ... [full story]

LEGUTIANO, Spain -- Spanish officials said a civil guardsman was killed and four wounded Wednesday when a car bomb exploded at a barracks in the Basque region of northern Spain.Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, authorities blamed the Basque separatist group ETA, said CNN, which reported the blast happened without warning at around 3 a.m. in Legutiano, Spain."We want to make it clear to the ETA terrorist group that all of the democratic ... [full story]

GAZA -- A senior Hamas leader in Gaza said Wednesday on the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel that the group has beaten the Jewish notion "of invincibility."Mahmoud al-Zahar said in Gaza that "the right of return is closer than ever" adding "the Zionist legend of invincibility has been destroyed," Ynetnews.com reported."Now more than ever I tell you -- (we) will never recognize Israel ... We will form the Palestinian state on all of ... [full story]

NEW YORK -- A conservative think tank in California is predicting that U.S. high schools will be delivering half of their courses online by the year 2019.Authors of a study conducted by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University said they expect online education to surge because it saves money and offers flexibility, The Christian Science Monitor reported Wednesday.Teachers in traditional schools can't be as flexible as online educators because they spend their time delivering one-size-fits-all ... [full story]